302 



Influence of Manures on Mutton. 



second and third seasons their positions have been reversed.. 

 On the total results of the three years the slag has given 

 132IDS. per acre of live-weight increase, as against 125IDS 

 for the super. The butcher's valuations are also strictly in 

 agreement with the weights, and if the 7 cwt. of super could 

 have been bought for the same money as the 5 cwt. of slag, 

 the financial results would have been approximately the same. 

 On account, however, of the much higher price of super, per 

 ton and per unit, it has given considerably less net profit 

 than the slag on the three years working, though both paid 

 satisfactorily. 



The results on the hay are similar to those obtained 

 with the sheep ; in the first year the super did better 

 than the slag, but in the succeeding years the order 

 was reversed. The main features of the botanical analysis of 

 the herbage of 1 899 are that super has done less than slag to 

 suppress the undesirable grass Agrostis, while slag has had 

 more influence in stimulating good plants such as cocksfoot, 

 fescues, and white clover. 



The joint report of the butcher and wool expert is as 

 follows : — " Sheep on Plot 5 appear to have been stationary 

 for some time ; those on Plot 4 have done better. Wool on 

 No. 5 not so well grown as that of No. 4, and about ^lb. less 

 of it. Two sheep prime fat on each plot." 



Plots 3 and 4. — The comparative effects of 10 cwt. [Plot 5) and $ 

 cwt. [Plot 4) per acre of haste slag applied for the season of 

 1897 , nothing since. In 1897 the same number of sheep (8 

 grazed these two plots, with the result that the larger dress- 

 ing of basic slag gave 40lbs. per acre of live-weight increase 

 in excess of the unmanured plot, whereas the smaller dress- 

 ing gave only 7 lbs. In 1898 eight sheep grazed Plot 4, as 

 compared with 10 — increased at the end of the sixth week to 

 11 — sheep on Plot 3. The live weight increase attributable 

 to the smaller dressing of slag was, at the end of that season, 

 60 lbs. per acre, which contrasts with 118 lbs. to the credit 

 of the heavier dressing. In 1899 twelve sheep grazed Plot 

 3 for the whole season, whereas Plot 4 could provide food for 

 eight only. The results in this — the third season — were the 

 most striking of all, the live weight increase produced by the 



